Half of Rolls-Royce engines on world's A380 fleet need replacing: Qantas boss

Melbourne, Nov 18 (ANI): Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce has said that about 40 Rolls-Royce engines on the world's A380 fleet would need to be replaced following an engine explosion on a Qantas plane earlier this month.

This would reportedly represent about half of all Rolls-Royce engines on A380 planes that are currently in service around the world.

Joyce said that the airline is in talks with Airbus to replace some of its existing Rolls-Royce engines with new engines from planes still in production on the Airbus assembly line.

"We've been talking to Airbus and Rolls-Royce and we understand that the number (of engines to be replaced worldwide) is around 40. We've already replaced three and there could be more." news.com.au quoted Joyce, as saying.

He further stated that up to 14 Rolls-Royce engines on Qantas planes would need to be inspected and potentially replaced, adding that the airline is continuing to inspect its A380 fleet, but it is not yet known whether more engines would need to be replaced.

The move was to ensure safety after one of the airline's engines broke apart mid-flight earlier this month, the report said.

Qantas has been struck with controversies since grounding its fleet of Airbus A380s after an engine explosion on November 4 forced an emergency landing in Singapore.

Yesterday one of the airline's Boeing 747 planes bound for Sydney was forced to turn back to Johannesburg after one of its engines suffered a bird strike. On Tuesday one of Qantas' smaller Boeing 717s was hit by lightning on a regional flight between the destinations of Alice Springs and Darwin, causing "minor damage" to the exterior.

The incidents follow the return to Sydney of a Qantas Boeing 747 bound for Buenos Aires on Monday after it suffered an electrical fault, which caused smoke to pour into the cockpit. (ANI)